The Athens Blur Magazine is an eight issue/year variety publication based in the “Classic City” of Athens, GA. Music is our specialty, and we pride ourselves on wide ranging coverage of local, regional and national artists of almost every genre, as well as objective criticism and commentary on all sides of the industry.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Artist of the Day: Mike Doughty

Former Soul Coughing frontman turned solo singer-songwriter Mike Doughty has one of those tried and true rags to riches stories.

He got his start in the music scene with his early 90s alt-rock band Soul Coughing, but became addicted to Heroin. Because of Doughty’s addiction and his eventual burnout with the band, he departed from the group in 2000, which immediately followed his drop from the Warner Brothers label. Things were looking grim.

After much dedication to breaking his drug habits and gaining a successful following with his solo effort, Doughty was able to persevere and developed a fan base for his own songs. From selling CD-R versions of his album Skittish to bumping into Dave Matthews at Bonnaroo and eventually releasing his next album Haughty Melodic on Matthews label ATO, the once struggling musician finally found some stable ground.

Now, Doughty has released four records under the ATO label, the most recent being Sad Man, Happy Man which dropped on October 6 of this year.

The new album is home to a Daniel Johnston cover of “Casper the Friendly Ghost” while iTunes offers some extra tracks, including a cover of “Three is a Magic Number” from Schoolhouse Rock.

Aside from some pretty cool covers, Doughty is also an active blogger:

An excerpt from an October 11 2009 blog:

“Apparently we haven't sold many tickets for tonight's two shows in Toronto. I was informed that it's Canadian Thanksgiving. Oh. Dearest Canucks, if you aren't too waylaid by being stuffed with food, and weary from being beset by relatives, come by?”

He seems like a fun-loving type of guy. And if you’re in Athens on Thursday, October 22, you can catch all the humor and the music at The Melting Point where he will be playing along with cellist Andrew “Scrap” Livingston.

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